The Sunday Sermonette – Are You Hungry?

Starvation. It has plagued us since the beginning of time. A lack of rain, flooded fields, or bug-infested crops can cause it to raise its skeletal head. Its horrors, though, cannot always be blamed on Mother Nature. The draconian polices of dictators can wreak disaster on millions, turning food into a weapon itself. Based on historical research, the following dictators—Hitler, Mao, and Stalin— are widely recognized as causing the state-engineered death of over sixty million innocent people.

Hitler and Nazi Germany’s deliberate starvation strategies killed masses of people. In the ghettos and the numerous concentration camps, millions were underfed to the point of death, and in some cases, starvation was used as a deliberate punishment.

Mao’s failed governmental tactics in the 1950s created a massive famine that led to massive starvation. Brought on by forced collectivization, disastrous grain buying policies, and continued grain exports during the worst years, gnawing starvation was rampant throughout Communist China.

Stalin, with the stroke of a pen and brute force in the 1920s and 30s, enacted the forced confiscation of Russian farms and those who owned them and worked the land. His rapid industrialization programs gutted the farming workforce and disrupted food production. His demands led to the deaths of millions across the Soviet Union, ushering in one of the most devastating human-made catastrophes of the 20th century.

Starvation is a brutal way to die. Intense pain and a slow mental breakdown are part of the process. Its physical symptoms include weakness, fast heart rate, thirst, and diarrhea. The eyes glaze over. Muscles shrink. Dizziness occurs. The skin turns ghostly pale. Even though they feel hungry, people in the last stages of starvation usually cannot eat enough food to recover without intense medical intervention. Without any food, humans usually die in a month or two.

When the body is starving, its strength fades. Hands weaken. Steps slow. Stomachs bloat. It cries out for bread. There is, however, another kind of starvation that has nothing to do with food. When we lock our souls away from Father God’s Holy Word, another kind of starvation sets in. Our hearts become dry and brittle, our faith flickers, and we no longer long for the nourishing bread that comes from Heaven. Earthly food may keep our bodies for a day, but the Word of God nourishes the soul forever.

In the Good Book, being “starved for the Word of God” is a metaphor for our spiritual hunger—a deep longing for God’s truth that’s not being met. It paints a word picture of physical hunger coupled with the reality of our spiritual needs. Hunger and thirst are metaphors, too, indicating a person’s deep desire for God’s presence and truth.

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” When Jesus was hungry in the wilderness and tempted by Lucifer, He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” A hunger for God’s Word is a sign of spiritual maturity.

Physical starvation is terrible, but spiritual starvation is tragic. The Prophet Amos spoke of “a famine…not of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” Your refrigerator and cabinets may be full, yet you may be starving inwardly if there’s dust on your Bible.

So, dear ones, please don’t wait until your soul is starving before checking out the scriptures. Please read a portion today, starting, perhaps, with the Psalms. Let Father God’s holy words correct what’s false inside you, comfort what’s wounded, and strengthen what’s weak. Fill your mind with His truth, your heart with His hope, and your soul with the love of Christ. Bread may be a gift for your body, but the Good Book is bread for your soul.

Ponder this and go forth.